Girl it is APRIL yes I know?! I completely blanked on my 2025 recap post; I have actually been in the middle of drafting another post about the Artist’s Residency I won with Fotomoto last year but I will probably have to shelve that for now in favor of this one. This really should have been done in December / January, but my laptop screen experienced difficulties, and I had to cough up a lot of money to have it replaced, and also we had all our belongings in boxes, so I think the whole thing just fell out of my head. In fact the only reason I remembered is because I went to look up a Livejournal entry from 2003 about the F4 concert I attended and I saw that I had, in fact, abandoned my Livejournal only last year to start doing these annual recaps here :)))))))))) right on
The other hurdle here is that I actually didn’t do much personal photography last year, I have been completely distracted by school, the residency, and most preeminently, a major renovation to our condo that we have since decided will be our forever home (hence the belongings in boxes).
ANYWAY let’s do this!
A quick study of the past year
Share a photograph that sums up…
Personal life & family
Due to our renovations, Sean and I moved in with my parents again for a period of about six months. This is the first major change in living arrangements that we’ve experienced since we got married, and it went fairly well I’d say! We’d get some side eye and “knowing” questions from well meaning friends and family about moving back in with my parents, but truth is my folks are super chill, it really wasn’t that much of an upheaval or a struggle. They were extremely accommodating and generous with us, as they always are, and more than that it was actively fun to live in such a lively household with so many people again! It was a nice little interlude to our mostly quiet married life. (They also live less than a kilometer away from us so it’s not like this was a completely new environment hahahaha)
We got to spend extended amounts of time with my niece and nephew who are always at that house, so the weekly knock on our door asking to be let in to just ~hang out~ became a sweet little thing we got used to, not to mention all the free food and toiletries and snacks and laundry and the fact that I did not have to wash dishes for that entire duration :D It was a fun stint at my old home!
Career & studies
There is a post about the entire residency in the works and I’ll get to uploading that soon, but this project really did consume a lot of my time and mental capacity. Making a project on a budget and on a timeline are pretty good conditions to trick you into getting a project done, though it does fry the brain cells quite a bit. I had to get this resolved and completed by October, and I had started in February, and this was on top of my full time job professoring, and all the kerfluff with the renovation, and other professional work – bitches be crazy, and that was me, I was bitches.
Nevertheless, I came up with work that I’m really proud of, happy with, and excited about, all of which are a win, and I got to work with people I look up to. I done been mentoring kids so hard the past few years it was so nice to be the mentee again, getting to send long blocks of text to Jason Quibilan explaining one convoluted rhetorical question which really has no answer??? Take me back to gradschool!
Friends & community
For a variety of reasons, there were a lot of opportunities for reconnection with old friends last year. Whether it was exhibits (mine or my grandma’s), or family events, or just sheer force of will, I saw a ton of people in 2025 that I had not seen in a long time, in hordes! Old friends, distant relatives, even old classmates and former students made themselves known. On my birthday, we went on a big beach trip with my highschool barkada for the first time in many years, I got to spend time with their children and spouses who I rarely encounter. This trip coincided with a big typhoon hitting Northern Luzon at the time, so we all convened in a hilariously corporate Zoom call to discuss whether or not we were pushing through – gotta love my type A brain trust.
I’m entering the stage where I officially have graduated more students than I currently handle, so the population labeled “former students” is growing! I have a personal policy where I don’t add or follow kids on social media while they are enrolled as students, it’s just a bit weird for me to see them in their civvies so to speak, but I’m getting to a point where I’m able to add a lot of them online because they have graduated, and we’re actually able to interact and laugh at each other’s shit, and it’s been kinda nice to see what they are like outside the classroom. I’m not very “affectionate” as a teacher I think, it just doesn’t jive with my personality (sobrang allergic ko rin nung highschool sa mga teacher’s pet, professionalism and familiarity are just weird lines to toe), so I like to maintain a reasonable professional distance with those who are enrolled under me. So I’m not always privy to students’ full personalities in the classroom, nor are they familiar with mine – which is fine I think, we are there for what we are there for, so it stays relatively simple. But I do get hints every now and again that all of them are very cool and lovely individuals, and we’d totally get along as people had we met in the wild, so it’s nice to eventually see them shed the “UP student” identity and find themselves in adulthood.
It’s also very possible that because for the majority of 2025 Sean and I didn’t have our own space, we might have compensated by hanging out with people outside of the house, so there’s that.
Relaxation, hobbies, creativity
I only really have three main activities outside of teaching and photography: that’s sewing, tabletop gaming, and cycling. I don’t really count watching shows or videos or video games; anything with a screen functions more to turn my brain off than on, and the abovementioned really act more as brain activators. I thought I wouldn’t get a lot of sewing done while we were at my parents, but I did in fact create some of my favorite and most wearable items I’ve ever made so far in 2025. It’s actually clear to me that my 2024 projects were all just practice, and the actual practicality of this skill only really surfaced last year. I haven’t bought clothing in over a year too, maybe just one hoodie and a pair of pants (I can’t work with denim), but everything else I have made or repaired myself, including my first brush with formalwear — an dress for a friend’s wedding!
I also got myself a Janome 3 thread overlocker, which I realize might come off as premature considering I’ve only been doing this hobby since 2024, but it’s come in incredibly useful, especially since I do enjoy me a patchworked item! The story of me acquiring that thing is a whole adventure, I bought it off some guy on FB marketplace and Sean drove me out to San Mateo Rizal to pick it up. We had a lovely encounter with a quiet man who had 7 other machines in a house smaller than my office and a loud dog named Loby.
I am considering starting a hobby account on instagram so that my makes aren’t relegated to my stories. We’ll see, i might take it up this year!
Physical health & fitness
Cycling in 2025 has continued, not much else to say about this. I’ve taken to diverting from my original cycling route to work, which takes me through East Ave into Matalino and Maginhawa before spitting me on to CP Garcia. Instead I now go through the elliptical road, on which biking infrastructure has been greatly improved. Fancy that! I also switched apps, from Mi Fit to Strava, since Mi Fit stopped working with the screen off for some reason (?!). I hate the competitiveness of Strava, it’s a bit too sports core for me, a casual cute cyclist who just uses it to track commutes, so if anyone has any alternate apps hit me up.
Mental health & self-knowledge
In the past few years, it has been a very deliberate decision on my part to step away from the excellence/overachieving mindset that has been bred into me since I was a kid, to the point that I almost thought it was normal. It’s not – I don’t need to be good at everything to be happy. Yeah that might not be very ~ UP ~ Honor and Excellence~ of me I know, but it’s not like I slack off or don’t actively do my work. I’ve been told that 80% of my total power is already more than sufficient, so I’ve been trying to walk at this pace. I have just divested myself of the need to be the best at my job, or to let my profession make me feel important or needed. I am important and needed and loved even without those things, and I am obligated to do my work well during my paid hours. But it is rare that anybody will die if I don’t check my email a Saturday, so I will protect my off hours with my life so that I can continue to sew my own clothes or whatever bullshit. This has done wonders for my mental health and stress levels, I am truly able to unclench when the clock hits 5, and truthfully this is the only way this work is sustainable for the forseeable future. I don’t care to be important at work, I just wanna be a normieeee
I have been rewatching Brooklyn 99 recently (FUCK COPS this show aged poorly but it’s still pretty funny), and have found myself relating more to Hitchcock and Scully than Amy or Rosa. Chill out ladies, ACAB burn it all down
Habits
We visited Taiwan in August for my inlaws’ 40th anniversary, and in preparation for that I decided to brush up on the little bit of Mandarin I had picked up from being an F4 fangirl back in the early 2000s. As my immersion, I started watching cdramas on Netflix, which to my surprise actually got me hooked! I find them decidedly more watchable than kdramas for whatever reason, though everyone is still super skinny and heteronormative so it’s not like anything majorly subversive is happening in these stories. I’m definitely not here for the political content, which is fine sometimes we just need brain junk food, but I do think this is largely affected by my general exasperation with Western media as a whole and my inability to empathize with the hegemony at the current moment. It’s not like Chinese or Southeast Asian media as a whole is immune to bad takes, I think right now it’s just my preference and the “better devil whomst I know”; and it really does help me pick up the language in the absence of anyone to practice on or listen to. I think I will have more to say about this in the superlatives section.
Anyway I downloaded and burned through a bunch of free Chinese learning apps, and the main effect on me has really been that I am constantly craving malatang or any variety of spicy noodle :9
Travel
Minimal travel this year, mostly due to the logistics of being not in our own home for the majority of the year. 2025 was bookended by two big trips to north Luzon for us – the first to Baguio to complete a longstanding game of D&D with our playgroup, ending our major storyline in preparation for one of our players to take a long hiatus. The trip at the end of the year was up to Banaue, Ifugao, where my father in law currently works as a hospital administrator in a remote health care center. In between there were a few beach trips, and the mentioned trip to Taiwan. Idk, travel seemed a bit superfluous this year because we did spend so much time away from our own home, so it felt like a double displacement to have to go elsewhere maybe.
The Future (What have you done to leave the world better than you found it?)
I think we were able to be there for our friends more this year than previously. A lot of those nodes of reconnection opened up and people were actually genuinely able to ask us for help, and we were able to respond. I won’t say more than that but it’s good to have community, we are happy to have ours!
Superlatives
The best decision I made
This is more of a “we” decision than an “I” decision but of course our renovation, with the exact people we chose to work with, was something that brought us a lot of joy. The decision to stay in this unit was something we thought long and hard about so the initiative to renovate really was with our long term residence in mind. I’ve heard and encountered a lot of horror stories about renovations for both houses and condos, tales of contractors gone bad or silent, botched finishing and other disasters. And while our experience was not without burps or hiccups, we feel really good about how this process went on our end. Our contractors were kind and accommodating and collaborative, having an architect on board was INCREDIBLY helpful and saved us a lot of headache (some of the questions in the groupchat just scrolled past my eyeballs like credits). The final outcome makes me never want to leave home! May some small things pa na kailangan ayusin but ultimately we good, we happy, this is exactly what we wanted!
Biggest lesson I learned
A conversation with someone late last year helped clarify for me what exactly it would mean for me to seek my PhD, what kind of work it would entail, and the kind of research it required. I think for a long time I was running on this notion that it would just be my masters part deux but I get now that it is in fact NOT THAT, the lifestyle shift is significantly different between the two degrees. This has caused me to actually think twice about whether or not I actually want a doctorate, and if it is even something that I would be capable of finishing given my current desire to actually be happy and alive. There’s a lot of logistical considerations here, but yeah, current status is I’m not sure if this is even for me. Is it?? Isn’t it??? IS IT?!?!?!
Biggest risk I took
Attempting to mount an exhibition with my photography elective students omg this could have killed us all but it didn’t! They all did so well with what little we were given, the turnout to the opening was significant and the mood was joyful (and relieved??), and the works ended up looking so good mounted. We even got to do a tiny little revalida/panel review towards the end of the show with James Lontoc. I’m tickled this turned out well, and I’m glad my students got to show off their great work; this is the first time the works from this class have been exhibited formally, and I am hoping I can continue this activity annually. This elective is always a high point in my year!
My favorite new something (person / place / experience / etc)
Snooze closed down early last year so we had to find another nearby coffee shop for our Sunday morning walks, and Molly’s hits the spot! Small and quiet and wifi and snacks and really good coffee. Yay Molly’s!
What I am proudest of
The o0o0o0o0o0rphanaaaage it of course has to be the work I did for the Fotomoto Residency at Circuit Makati. This project was the fruit of many long shooting days, many conversations, and so much writing. The part that makes me really happy about this work is the fact that the people that worked in the mall – security, staff at restaurants, maintainance people – all felt welcome to approach and interact with it and co-create their prints with me. Kids too – so many kids were able to play with this to the point that my own friends and family ran out of paper! I ended up printing 10x more sheets than I had initially planned, I really thought 200 pcs would be enough for the 1 month run! I’m really happy about this work! More on that in my next post I guess.
Biggest disappointment
The election was not a total disappointment in the sense that I do not feel devastated by the outcome, but would have been nice if those I voted for made it. I’m happy with who I voted for, and what it means that so many people voted for them too despite lacking the political machinery that elevates other crappy politicians. I went straight Makabayan last year, no exceptions, no more midways or neoliberal compromises. I’m basically done with democracy hahahahaha but whatever I’ll still participate
Biggest heartbreak
To be completely honest sawang sawa na ako mag-rally, o na makarinig ng kung anuanong kabalbalan ng mga “officemate” ko sa gobyerno. How the fuck these buttmonkeys be scraping billions out of the cache when I can’t get 6k from the department for an ink cartridge? Help?
I don’t really have the kind of personality that would make me want to leave the country out of resentment, tbh I don’t think I would be a very good anything anywhere else, I think the job I am doing now is probably as good as it gets for me in terms of setup, expectations, pay (i mean obviously they could pay me more always), output, etc. But I live here and this is our home and i’m full of rage about it.
What I am most grateful for
Thanks for feeding us for six months! And for the 30+ years surrounding that :P The ghost who eats your snacks in the middle of the night has returned to the underworld. Love you!
Consumption
Best Movies & TV 2025 – This was the year of my return to the cdrama!!!!!! Bro I watched SO MANY – a lot of them I dropped in the middle ngl, sometimes when you just ain’t vibing with something, you just ain’t gon vibe and you gotta cut it loose. But I’m gonna list my favorites from last year here in no particular order:
Everyone Loves Me (2024) – OKAY I LIED THIS ONE IS MY FAVORITE. I have no idea why, I have some theories, but it’s got 27 episodes and as of this writing, I’ve rewatched it 7 times since I first watched it in early 2025. The plot is weird, the cinematography is just okay, and the relationships are fine but the leads are SO MAGNETIC. I have concluded that this is largely a response to these two actors. I cannot stop watching Lin Yi and Zhou Ye in this, their chemistry is incredibly compelling, I enjoy the way the dynamic shifts after he discovers the nature of their connection in the 7th or 8th episode. I like that Gu Xun is not the typical stoic male lead that we see in these dramas, he’s rather goofy and manipulative and kind of trips all over himself to get what he wants. Yue Qianling is chirpy and earnest, but I like that her reactions to all of his antics are pretty emotionally realistic, like she never over or underreacts, she’s always just reacting with just the right amount of force, which can be a tough balance to strike in a romantic comedy.
I guess I should bring up that I also discovered that this is a trope that I enjoy called “she fell first, he fell harder” HMM GEE IDK WHY but they pull that off really well here. I think it creates a balanced dynamic that doesn’t feel like one or the other of them has the romantic upper hand, or is “more” in love with the other. I ended up buying and translating the novel version of this story, which I thought was a lot better because it did not devolve into corporate nonesense towards the end. Really, they could have cut all of that out.
New Life Begins (2022) – This was my first costume drama, I went searching on Reddit for one that was a little more comedic because I really couldn’t get on board some of the xanxia ones, I think the suspension of disbelief is a bit much for me. This ended up working out really well, and I learned a lot from watching it – I learned that a lot of these costume dramas have to use invented histories to get around the strict relationship popular media has to have with historicity, which makes sense. I learned about the whole concubine/legal wife dynamic lmao, very familiar in the PH setting too. Ang ganda rin ng pagkaensemble nito, all the women are friends and there isn’t a lot of catty bullshit that male writers can typically poison scripts like this with. This is a really feel good drama with low stakes and a lot of funny moments, I also fell in love with both Tian Xiwei and Bai Jingting in this, they are really great leads. Weird lang na they keep having to get drunk to make out, what. Also andaming pagkain, nakakagutom ito.
The First Frost (2025) – SPEAKING OF BAI GE, The First Frost introduced me to this notion of the, uh, cdrama cinematic universe?! What are we doing here?!?! I thought Hidden Love was just okay, I really liked Zhao Lusi in it but the whole age gap thing is too weird for me but THE FACT THAT THEY RECAST VICTOR MA FOR THIS SPIN OFF AT FIRST BROKE MY HEART but also, I read a theory about how like of course San Zhi sees her brother as this goofball weirdo and OF COURSE Wei Yifan sees him as this yassified hunk so okay I think this is a good reading of this material. I think this was a complicated and tough romance to write and portray but they closed that loop really well, considering that I think ending stories seems to be a weakness of this particular genre. This is beautifully written, a bit too serious for me, I don’t feel compelled to watch it again, but when I did watch it I couldn’t stop.
Best Music 2025 – I listened to so much hiphop last year it’s CRAZY. I do think this is again a response to my icky feelings about colonized works, so I think the subversive nature of hiphop helped cleanse my palette (my punk days are over kasi). Over from the Western side of things, I went through Kendrick’s ENTIRE discography because I became obsessed with that damn Superbowl performance and just wanted more of that kick.
But I also listened to a lot of Pinoy hiphop – Paul M Ballin, Morobeats, Mista Lefty, a lot of stuff that I’d find on random playlists on Spotify. I guess I’ve always kind of had a sideways relationship with Pinoy hiphop, i’d never really spent time on it, I did a little in college and on the rare occasions that I’d hear it, I’d enjoy it. But in 2025 I had actual dedicated playlists for this stuff, and had some of it on my regular rotation too. I think it just comes with the political climate, I needed someone to give voice to a lot of my frustrations. Also listening to this shit when I’m biking makes people act very weird around me, I guess the general reaction is surprise, which keeps pedestrians on their toes and motorcycles out of my way.
Best Games 2024 – I played a lot of Hello Kitty’s Island Adventure and Stardew Valley. Nothing new, don’t got no cash!
Best of the Internet 2024 – I went on a deep deep dive in late 2025 trying to figure out how to download the novel version of Everyone Loves Me. I found a half translated version up for free on some fan site, then I had to pay for the other half but turns out they hadn’t completed the novel. I then had to find the original source of the webnovel and purchase the missing chapters, which in turn led me to having to figure out how to use Alipay – it was a whole thing. All of that to say, I spent time on bits of the internet I haven’t thought about in decades!
Letting Go
Say goodbye to 2024 with an image.
Here’s one of the plant installs we saw around the QC Memorial Park when Rayson and I did our ocular slash went plant shopping for the residency. The use of the electric fan grill as a plantbox struck me as so odd but so Pinoy, so resourceful to a fault it’s hard not to find something beautiful in it but also I wish you a very nice plantbox in the future sir or ma’am, you probably deserve a nicer thing.
Sandra out! 2026 has started off ROUGH; hoping next year’s review won’t be quite so dire. Up next, notes from my residency!
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